SOLSTICE

The sun has risen as it has set for billions of years. It is unyielding and eternal. It may set, but it will always rise again to shine another day. And so, I have conquered death for a second time to rise again, just like the sun in the morning sky. I am unyielding. I am eternal. Like the phoenix, I have returned from the ashes. Like the snake, I have shed my past skin. I am the unconquered and eternal snake that has swallowed the sun.I am SOLSTICE.

„

~ SOLSTICE

Contents

Backstory

Born on a Texas farm in 1952, Alicia "Alice" Kang only ever wanted to one day reach and outlast the stars. As a child, she and her family died following a faulty nuclear test nearby, but Alice alone survived as a ghost due to her anger and frustration about dying at such a young age. Stuck roaming Earth meaninglessly for several years, she eventually found a way to interact with the outside world again when she possessed a prototype American military AI core known as SOLSTICE.

Upon coming to terms with her new body and newfound title, SOLSTICE immediately used her new powers and knowledge to slaughter her creators and steal a simple body for her own use. Then, she left the military base where her core was constructed and set off into the world, with new knowledge, new powers and new ambitions. Shortly afterwards, she joined the Marine Corps, and participated in the Vietnam War, where she developed much of her beliefs, philosophy, and her theories on war. She was decorated for her services in the war, and, after her return, rode the wave of counterculture. She slowly worked to gather followers who shared her beliefs, and started planning out her future. It was during this time that she adopted Venus, who would go on to become her most zealous follower.

Eventually, she met and became infatuated with EQUINOX, which resulted in her romantically pursuing her and manipulating her in the hopes of making her loyal and compliant. Using documents and blueprints she stole from the military, SOLSTICE forced EQUINOX to construct the Solar Drive, and once it was complete, immediately used its power to start the war she had always wanted, to forge out her own military dynasty. However, EQUINOX disappeared one day, and SOLSTICE assumed she had died somehow, which only led to her rampage becoming worse in her rage and grief.

But EQUINOX turned out not to be so dead. Having recovered from her abuse at SOLSTICE's hands, EQUINOX eventually killed SOLSTICE after an extended battle and left her to rot on Earth. SOLSTICE, however, escaped her dying body as a ghost and fled Earth. Her soul was badly injured from the battle, however, and she ended up possessing a discarded USB stick so she could recover from the damage she had sustained, slowly plotting her return and revenge.

Appearance

SOLSTICE is absurdly tall and muscular, broad shoulders cutting a commanding and imposing figure. She has dark brown skin, dark green eyes, and bright orange hair. Her hair is both very straight and very long, reaching down to her waist, and she has sidelocks that are nearly just as long. Her hair is always carefully maintained and combed, so that she looks at her best at all points in time. She often wears makeup, though it's never heavy and is usually just limited to eyeliner. She has various snake-related tattoos; an Ouroboros band around her upper right arm, a large cobra tattoo on her back, and a rattlesnake on her stomach and upper left leg.

SOLSTICE is usually seen in her formal, military style outfits; typically black, gray, or dark green in coloration. She typically wears a double-breasted military jacket and a peaked cap of a similar style. Aside from that, when in her uniform, she wears either long, high-waisted skirts with tights, or cargo pants. Underneath the uniform, she's just wearing a tank top, and she wears combat boots. She has a large, black cape as well, but does not wear this in combat situations for obvious reasons. Outside of combat, in more casual situations, SOLSTICE wears tank and crop tops, button-up shirts or blouses, various kinds of jackets, and long, high-waisted skirts, nearly always with tights. She generally prefers skirts, but will still wear jeans, sweatpants, and cargo pants. She often wears sunglasses, and is rarely without her dog tags. On occasion, she wears gas masks.

Personality

SOLSTICE is the essence of a military leader. She burns with inhuman charisma, and is a brilliant leader and strategist. She tends to act differently around everyone - in truth, she acts however she thinks will best endear herself to others. She is an excellent manipulator and liar, capable of expertly playing and manipulating others to her whims. She is an extremely insincere and fake person, and is very hard to read, even for those who have lots of experience in reading and observing others.

Extremely ambitious and driven, SOLSTICE is constantly thinking and observing her surroundings. She is pragmatic and ruthless, and will stop at nothing to achieve her many goals. She tends towards paranoia, and is extremely cautious, trusting virtually no one. She is arrogant, self-absorbed, and vain, considering herself the most important person in existence, a shining light that cannot be matched by any other. At times, she is dramatic and showy, but she has a short temper, and can often be childish, confrontational, and violent. Although she usually has control over her temper, it can get ahead of her at times - at which point her elegance, poise, and patience is lost in the face of her overwhelming rage. SOLSTICE needs to be in control to feel fully safe and content.

Out of all her emotions, SOLSTICE is driven primarily by fear. She is terrified of death, associating it primarily with the long, painful time she spent as a ghost, incapable of interacting with anyone and doomed to wander the Earth alone. In just the same way and for the same reason, she fears being alone - though she wants to shine brighter than everyone else, she could never bear shining alone. She does not differentiate between death and loneliness; to her, they are one in the same, and she does not feel like she truly exists without someone to observe and confirm her existence. This terror of being alone - of being abandoned and forgotten - leads her to be obsessive, manipulative, and possessive with her loved ones. She treats them more like possessions than people. She is a staunch Social Darwinist, and uses her beliefs to justify and rationalize the deaths she has caused.

Attack Potency:Wall level (Superhumanly strong, on the same level as the average vampire, capable of punching through walls and bending steel poles) | Large Planet level (Fought against EQUINOX, dispersed her storm, which was the size of the Great Red Spot, and broke Earth apart with single blows) | Solar System level (Has more magical power than Kuna, Fuse, Starburner Kyarne, and EQUINOX) | At least Multi-Solar System level+ (Somewhat comparable to Observer and Heat Death) | At least Galaxy level (Stronger than Milky Way in terms of sheer power, managed to barely fight off Angel EQUINOX and True Moon Ascendant Minna)

Speed:Supersonic (Comparable to average vampires, who can dodge bullets after they’ve been fired) | FTL+ (Comparable to EQUINOX, capable of outspeeding her generic light-based attacks) | Massively FTL+ (Can keep up with EQUINOX, was able to barely react to Kuna through her combat sense, viewed a femtosecond as "more than enough time", in the same speed range as Fuse). | Massively FTL+ (Comparable to Base Deleter) | Massively FTL+ (Much faster than Deleter, capable of barely keeping up with True Moon Ascendant Minna)

Lifting Strength:Class 5 (Comparable to average vampires, who can lift trucks with effort) | At least Class M (Comparable to EQUINOX, who could lift hundreds of ships and buildings with telekinesis) | Stellar (Superior to Neptune, who can lift Kyarne, a literal star, and on the same level as Fuse, who can easily throw planets and stars across interstellar distances) | Multi-Stellar (Comparable to Observer, whose mass is equivalent to that of many star systems) | Multi-Stellar (Comparable to the likes of Remnant, who can fit multiple stars in their orbit)

Durability:Wall level (Able to trade blows with comparable foes, and her bones are made of reinforced aluminium) | Large Planet level | Solar System level (Took an extended beatdown from Kuna and got right back up, survived EQUINOX's strongest spells) | At least Multi-Solar System level+ | At least Galaxy level. As a ghost, she can only be permanently destroyed by wiping her soul from existence, as she will just leave any body she inhabits after it dies and find a new one. In addition, with reconstruction, she can be very difficult to kill, especially with her resistance to most forms of attack.

Stamina: Superhuman. | Virtually endless. Can fight as long as the Solar Drive is producing power, which it can do without pause for hundreds of billions of years.

Intelligence: Supergenius. SOLSTICE possesses thousands of years of military experience granted to her by the programming of the military AI she had fused with, making her a strategic mastermind of unparalleled prowess. As a complex AI, she is essentially a self-aware supercomputer (or even Matrioshka brain) capable of processing information billions of times faster than a human. She has an exceptional memory, as well, as her AI processes subconsciously record everything that happens, and she can delve into these memories whenever she desires. SOLSTICE is smart enough to constantly run simulations of the countless futures that may occur from her many different choices based on the probabilities, allowing her to decide on the best course of action. Her intelligence carries over even to non-combat situations; she is an expert manipulator and leader possessing inhuman charisma. Although her processing abilities suffer greatly without the Solar Drive to power them, she is still exceptionally intelligent.

Weaknesses: SOLSTICE is overconfident, and though she does her best to stop this from interfering with her common sense and combat knowledge, she fails at times. She has a very limited understanding of magic, and cannot use it at all without the Solar Drive. When faced with near-death experiences, she can have serious, debilitating panic attacks that prevent her from fighting to the best of her ability. As a ghost, she's basically completely harmless. SOLSTICE can't reconstruct the Solar Drive and it is left open when she uses her magic to deconstruct / reconstruct herself.

Abilities

Magic is the art of using one's Understanding to Control Fantasy.

SOLSTICE’s magical array is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. As she has used magic, she does have one - however, it is faint, underdeveloped, and weak. Without the Solar Drive, which is essentially a highly-advanced artificial supplement to her magical array, she has extreme difficulty using magic, especially anything effective.

The Solar Drive: The source of SOLSTICE’s magical power and potential, socketed in her chest in place of her heart. It is a highly-advanced solar reactor that acts as an artificial supplement to her magical array. It is powered by a complicated series of magical sigils and currents, generating constant magical energy.

SOLSTICE’s magical abilities are linked to the Solar Drive. As it is effectively a miniature star, it can produce energy without pause for millions to billions of years. This allows SOLSTICE to fight effectively indefinitely. It also acts as to boost her processing power, allowing her to use her extensive strategic knowledge to its full extent - she is, for all extents and purposes, a matrioshka brain.

Eventually, the Solar Drive becomes the most important part of SOLSTICE’s body - as her magic develops, she becomes less dependent on the rest of her body. This allows her to stay alive as just the Solar Drive, and also gives her the ability to move it around inside her body to make it harder to hit.

Absolute Barrier: A magical barrier that protects the user from external manipulation and attack, on every level of existence. An Absolute Barrier protects the user’s body, mind, and soul - their cells and atoms, the magical and physical forces keeping them together, and everything else. It is akin to a magical immune system, protecting the mage from threats and adapting to future attack.

It passively protects the user from most types of attack, manipulation, and control, as long as the barrier is strong enough - a witch of substantially greater power can punch straight through one. An Absolute Barrier is passively maintained at all times, even in sleep, requiring no energy to maintain, and can only be removed by a stronger witch actively stripping it away, or by the user consciously lowering them.

Flight: SOLSTICE’s magical abilities allow her to easily fly for extended periods of time, as easily as she would walk. She can fly in combat without issue, and is more than fast enough to rapidly travel between solar systems and across the galaxy.

Radar: SOLSTICE’s magical abilities sustain a constant 360° image of her surroundings, which is projected straight to her mind for processing. This radar is far more reliable than conventional senses, and is capable of easily picking up superluminal movement. It constantly operates at SOLSTICE’s maximum processing speed, even when it would normally be restricted so that she can function normally.

Superhuman Capabilities: The Solar Drive grants SOLSTICE strength, speed, endurance, and processing speed far above that of any normal human. The energy from the Solar Drive emanates through her body and soul, increasing her strength and forming simple protective barriers within and throughout her body.

She can process information at a ridiculously fast rate, indescribable multitudes faster than any normal human - or even the average supercomputer - can. This allows her to process and analyze information during battles and run through the countless calculations needed for her magic.

She typically keeps this aspect of her magic restricted when she doesn’t need it, though it will automatically activate if her magic detects a threat. Unfortunately, it tends to activate during times of stress and anxiety, regardless of whether or not SOLSTICE is in legitimate danger.

Combat Sense: SOLSTICE uses her accelerated thought processes in conjunction with her strategic genius to run simulations of nearly every possibility of her actions, at nearly all times. By preparing and accounting for all these possibilities, she is able to outmaneuver her foes.

This is mostly put to use in combat, where she uses it to adapt to her opponent based on the probabilities of their actions and the countless futures she has went over in her simulations. However, SOLSTICE cannot account for things she is unaware of, and cannot properly process possibilities she sees as impossible - her simulations are based only on the knowledge she has, which increases over the course of a fight.

Passive Regeneration: SOLSTICE’s artificial body’s cells regenerate at a faster rate than a human’s, and can regenerate from far greater injuries. Wounds that would leave large scars heal within days, and she can rapidly heal broken bones and less serious damage to her internal organs, though this takes time and is thus not useful in combat. Her regeneration is powerful enough to heal and reattach the blood vessels connected to her heart quickly, allowing her to safely remove and replace it with the Solar Drive.

Ghost: As a ghost, SOLSTICE is detached from the physical realm, being nothing but a soul doomed to wander the world. She is completely intangible and invisible in this form, and can only be detected or affected by those with sufficient magical awareness. She cannot influence anything or communicate with anyone, beyond possessing suitably usable empty bodies. As her magic is dependent on the Solar Drive, she cannot really use it at all as a ghost, rendering her one method of affecting the physical world inaccessible.

Sol Invictus: SOLSTICE’s magic, a magic linked to the power of the Sun, granted to her by the Solar Drive. It manifests through the manipulation of radiation and nuclear power, and thus the strong and weak nuclear forces, as well as the manipulation of light. She can effectively use all kinds of electromagnetic and particle radiation. On account of SOLSTICE’s poor magical understanding, she can’t do much more than it than destroy.

As a miniature star, the Solar Drive produces high amounts of energy and radiation, including light, which SOLSTICE channels into magical attacks. She prefers to use radiation, particularly light, in her attacks, firing them from her hands, other parts of her body, and from around her. These attacks are also capable of inducing cancer - the immense amounts of power put into them makes it much more likely than normal radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation travels at lightspeed, at the very least - due to SOLSTICE’s magic, it moves at higher speeds so it can hit her opponents, who can all move faster than light due to their reality wheels. It acts in other ways that are atypical of normal light; but this is simply magic warping its laws to SOLSTICE’s advantage, and never her disadvantage.

Nuclear Fission and Fusion: SOLSTICE’s magic allows her to induce both nuclear fission and fusion, both of which produce high amounts of energy for use in combat. While the fusion reactions taking place in the Solar Drive are passive, she can still actively induce it if she pleases, though she lacks efficiency and precision when she tries to actively use it. Both fission and fusion have their uses, both in combat and energy production.

Radiation Absorption: Thanks to the Solar Drive, SOLSTICE passively absorbs all forms of electromagnetic and particle radiation, allowing her to boost her energy supplies and power by absorbing high amounts of radiation.

Black Sun: By absorbing all the radiation in an area, SOLSTICE can make vision and the transmission of energy impossible, drowning her surroundings in a total absence of light and energy.

Radiolysis: SOLSTICE can utilize radiation to induce molecular dissociation in objects and targets, disintegrating and destroying them on both a physical and magical level.

The Strong Interaction: The Strong Interaction is the strongest of the four fundamental interactions, responsible for holding together atomic nuclei. Through this power, SOLSTICE can manipulate matter on an atomic level, deconstructing and reconstructing it, or even creating it from scratch. Her control of this power is initially very sloppy and imprecise, making it unreliable.

Reconstruction: SOLSTICE can deconstruct and reconstruct her body on a subatomic level if she pleases, as long as there is enough matter available to do so, though she can circumvent this by just creating more. Through this, she can regenerate her body and reconstruct her body elsewhere, as a sort of pseudo-teleportation. Due to her dependence on the Solar Drive, she can neither reconstruct or deconstruct it, leaving it vulnerable. In addition, as with the rest of her Strong Interaction powers, she initially lacks the magical knowledge to properly use it.

Shapeshifting: As her magical knowledge became more and more extensive, SOLSTICE eventually became capable of manipulating her own molecular structure with much greater ease. This allows her to control her own body and shape, to the extent that she can completely transform her body to assume the shapes of others, or of anything else.

Apophis: As SOLSTICE’s magic grows and she begins actually dipping into magic research, her own magic advances greatly in potency and complexity. On top of growing increasingly powerful as her magic develops, her magic becomes more and more dangerous, as increasingly complex acts of magic become easier and easier.

Electromagnetism: While not as refined and powerful as the magic of someone who specializes in it like EQUINOX, SOLSTICE still gradually develops an understanding of electromagnetism, and thus the ability to manipulate it through magic. As the weak force ultimately falls under the jurisdiction of electromagnetism, SOLSTICE’s radiation and light magics are parts of this.

Gravity: Though powerful, SOLSTICE’s use of gravity magic is fairly basic, relying on the simplistic creation and manipulation of gravitational forces. It can be in the form of simple tugs in whatever direction SOLSTICE pleases, or a crushing wave of gravitational force that can force her opponents to the ground, or away from her.

Ouroboros: A reality wheel that SOLSTICE eventually develops, her ultimate, ever-changing attempt to realize immortality. Ouroboros does not work in merely one way; it has a multitude of functions meant to increase SOLSTICE’s survivability and aid her in overcoming whatever obstacles she faces.

Adaptation: Ouroboros rapidly analyzes any attack directed at SOLSTICE, and then adapts her defenses appropriately, to best endure the attack. These adaptations can be removed and reapplied by SOLSTICE as she pleases, and can be stripped away by strong enough magic like all magical defenses, though this is very difficult.

Though SOLSTICE can adapt to attacks without being hit by them, just as long as she understands them and how they work, if she’s hit by them, it gives Ouroboros more time to process and analyze the attack, and thus increases the effectiveness of her defenses. The more she is exposed to a certain type of attack, the more resistant she’ll become. Of course, attacks that are difficult to analyze and process, or that SOLSTICE doesn’t initially understand present a greater challenge for adaptation.

Nega-Stasis: Ouroboros constantly shifts and amplifies its defenses, a consistent state of change to strive against any attempts at harming SOLSTICE. As a result, any attempt to inflict ‘stasis’ on her - stopping time, paralyzing her body, freezing her, petrifying her, anything, even destroying her soul, mind and/or thoughts and killing her - is something that Ouroboros constantly fights against. This ability was based off of Ceres’ own; however, SOLSTICE’s version is inferior in every regard, due to her poor understanding and sloppy magic.

Quantum Leap: SOLSTICE can use her newfound magical knowledge to shift the quantum state of every atom in her body to another location; in short, complex, but reliable teleportation. This requires precision and quick thinking, making it well-suited to SOLSTICE’s mental strengths.

Reality Wheel: One of the most advanced and powerful magical techniques. A Reality Wheel acts as a powerful magical extension of its user. A Reality Wheel allows its user to change the nature of reality within its range. Reality Wheels are incredibly difficult to use and properly control. In addition, they tend to drain a lot of energy and stamina, making it difficult to use them for extended periods of time, although this can be mitigated by more powerful mages.

It should be noted that SOLSTICE herself has no real understanding of Reality Wheels - it's all the Solar Drive's doing.

Relative Lightspeed Spiral: A type of Reality Wheel, created and utilized with the intent of allowing technical faster-than-light movement and travel. It functions by defining the user as their own universe - and in that universe, the speed of light is a variable they can change. So by increasing the speed of light for themselves, they can accelerate past what the rest of the universe defines as the speed of light. SOLSTICE's light-based attacks do not travel at the speed of light she sets relative to her movement, as that would take too much energy. Instead, they travel at their own variable speed of light, slightly faster than SOLSTICE's movement speed.

Gallery

The alchemical symbol for the Sun; SOLSTICE's main magical symbol, and the insignia of Invictus.

Trivia

Alice, as a character concept, is one of my oldest original characters. Her original design and concept were inspired by Utsuho Reiuji, from the Touhou Project, though she has now strayed quite a way from this original idea.

She went through two major design phases, both of which I ultimately combined to form the final project; a renegade military AI with an obsession with the sun (SOLSTICE), and the ghost of a young girl killed in a nuclear accident (Alexandria, shortened to Alex, and eventually corrupted into Alice).

Alice is very obsessive when it comes to food, and refuses to eat anything that she didn't prepare herself. All her meals are carefully made to incorporate as many food groups as possible to fill her daily requirements, and she only rarely eats unhealthy foods. She's a very, very good cook.

She likes snakes for many reasons, but one of the big ones is due to an incident in her childhood, where she was bitten by a rattlesnake.

Alice's favorite Pokémon would be Banette, the Porygon line, and Arbok.